Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Edwards, these early initiatives helped create the country's first urban
wildlife refuge in 1974 and fueled its eventual expansion. It now consists
of six areas and 40,000 acres that encompass open bay, salt pond, salt
marsh, mudflat, upland, dune, and vernal pool habitats. Eventually, the
refuge was named in honor of Edwards.
In addition, dozens of local park districts, open space groups, land
trusts, and nonprofits have collaborated with the California Department
of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the California
Coastal Conservancy to acquire and maintain the last remaining open
spaces and vestigial habitats along the estuary's shores. As a result, there
are currently over 121,000 acres of wetlands protected by parks, refuges,
and preserves in the estuary basin. Within all these habitats, regulators
also set “no-work windows.” During sensitive times, such as when en-
dangered species are reproducing, these windows forbid construction
activities or disturbance.
Since its postwar population boom, California has never had enough
water to go around. By the 1960s, demand for water had grown so great
that the vast federal and local water project infrastructure built before
World War II (see p. 138, “Controlling Water Supply and Floods”) had to
be much more closely managed. So as not to run short, engineers and
water districts had to juggle water supplies, maintain levees, and work to
accommodate seasonal fluctuations in supply and demand. California's
daily manipulation of nearly every drop of fresh water that fell from the
skies or melted into reservoirs from the snowpack had begun.
California decided that the federal Central Valley Water Project—and
smaller municipal projects built on the Mokelumne and Tuolumne rivers
in the 1930s and 1940s—did not provide enough water for the growing
Golden State. In 1959, it gave the official go-ahead for the largest state-
built, multipurpose water project in the United States. The resulting State
Water Project (SWP) now delivers over two million acre feet of water in an
average year, gathered from the Feather River in the Sacramento Valley
and piped to urban, industrial, and agricultural consumers as far as 600
miles away from its three Sierra reservoirs and the Oroville Dam. When
full, this 770-foot-tall dam—which looms taller than the towers of the
Golden Gate Bridge—can trap up to 3.5 million acre feet of water spread
over 15,000 acres. That's a cubic mile of water behind one dam.
Since 1960, SWP has built 29 dams, 18 pumping plants, 5 hydroelectric
